


V3 IF

by JackFettGames



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, I gave Angie a grand total of one line of dialogue lmao, Inspired by Danganronpa IF, Investigations, Kaede remains the leader, Mystery, You can pry practically smart Gonta from my cold and dead hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26064511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackFettGames/pseuds/JackFettGames
Summary: After overcoming the Death Road of Despair, the sixteen SHSL students awake in a new location.(IF of Danganronpa V3, spoilers for the whole game ahead)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	V3 IF

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! It's been a while since I've posted any story here, and this story is my first for this fandom. I hope I do it justice!
> 
> As a note, I haven't quite gotten used to writing honorifics, so the characters will use given names like they do in the English dub. However, I use other aspects of the original Japanese version, such as referring to Tsumugi as the "ringleader" rather than the "mastermind."
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy my story, and thank you for reading it!

A flash, and the sixteen SHSL students awoke.

They had just been forcing their way through the exit tunnel from the Academy for Gifted Juveniles, struggling through an array of traps, platforms, and explosives. Kaede Akamatsu couldn’t recall the specific actions she took to attempt the trial, but she chalked it up to the exhaustion that grew through her as the students proceeded further into the tunnel. In fact, she must have passed out from her exhaustion, now that she laid on the floor, eyes closed. Did the tunnel force the students back into the academy, or— Kaede let a little hope shine through her thoughts— had they gotten through the tunnel at last?

Kaede opened her eyes to check.

Well, her surroundings didn’t seem familiar. Above Kaede hung a brass chandelier, a little on the sparse side, but still displaying its own charm. It wouldn’t seem out of place in a concert hall. To its side laid a dual staircase, combining to lead up to a floor above. Other than that, Kaede only faced a plain white ceiling, starkly lit by daylight spilling from a window just out of her view.

Kaede placed her hands next to her, intending to push herself up and examine the rest of the room. However, her right hand landed upon an unknown object next to her, and when she attempted to push herself up, the object slid out from under her hand, and she fell back onto the ground.

A little miffed, Kaede made sure both of her hands were on the (carpeted) ground before trying again. Now sitting upright, Kaede immediately noticed all the miscellaneous objects scattered across the ground. It was odd to see all these different tools and essential items spread out as if someone had strewn them about, frantically searching for one immediately necessary item among them.

However, the presence of the other SHSL students quickly consumed her attention.

“Nyeh? What happened?” Himiko Yumeno rubbed her eyes. Now that she thought about it, Kaede also felt a little groggy from waking up, not to mention the dull ache in her joints. “All I remember is one of those bombs coming toward me…”

“Himiko! Are you hurt!” Tenko Chabashira sprang up, sprinting across the room and landing next to Himiko. “I promise to nurse you back to perfect health!” Tears forming in her eyes, Tenko moved to embrace Himiko.

“Nyeh… I’m alright.” Himiko halfheartedly pushed Tenko’s searching hands away. “Nothing’s more of a pain than it usually is. I just feel tired…”

“Well, it seems we have arrived in a new location.” Korekiyo Shinguji was already standing, already adapting to the melody of his surroundings. “If I may hazard a guess, I believe we made it through the tunnel, although I do not seem to remember it.”

They had made it. They had freed themselves from the academy, from the killing game, from all the imprisonment behind them. And nothing from the academy, not even Monokuma, seemed to have any influence here, judging by how he hadn’t shown up at all. The emotions that played through Kaede now, they were the most heartening she had ever experienced.

“Kukuku… Humanity’s resilience is beautiful.”

Upon seeing Korekiyo, Kaede pushed herself to her feet as well. As the leader, Kaede was responsible for seeming strong and capable, after all. “We did it, guys! We escaped the killing game!”

“Hell yeah!” Supportive as ever, Kaito Momota pushed himself off of the ground to give Kaede an enthusiastic thumbs-up. “I knew we could do it!”

“Nyahahaha!” Angie Yonaga leapt to her feet, not one to sit still for long. “Just as Atua wanted for us!”

The room soon filled with similar sentiments from the other SHSL students. Some, like Tenko and Miu Iruma, shouted in an extravagant display of accomplishment, while others, like Ryoma Hoshi and Kirumi Tojo, gave more subdued expressions of victory. No matter who, everyone was glad to be out of the clutches of Monokuma.

Except, Kaede realized that three voices were notably absent from the celebration: Rantaro Amami, Tsumugi Shirogane, and Kokichi Oma. Kaede turned to check on them, and despite donning smiles of support, all three of them seemed to have a sort of detachment from the activity of the others. Maybe it was something in their eyes.

Miu shouted a question, interrupting Kaede’s train of thought. “So, what the fuck are we supposed to do now, Kaidiot?”

Kaede thought for a second. If they were indeed free from the killing game, they would be free to exit the house and reenter society. However, they would also need some way to contact their families, and as far as Kaede knew, none of them had any credentials or money for the world outside of the academy.

Before Kaede could make any kind of decision, Kaito made a proclamation. “Well, obviously we should go outside! You can’t deal with a problem unless you face it head on!”

Kaede noticed Kokichi blink as he spoke for the first time. “And what do we do if Monokuma is outside waiting for us, huh, huh?”

The notion that they might not be entirely free yet dampened the spirit in the room, yet Kaito still pushed to refute Kokichi. “Well— we’ll face him and defeat him, just like we defeated his trials before!”

Kokichi donned an odd expression, a sort of self-important leer, as he put a finger up to his lips. “Do you really think it would be that easy?”

“It might not be easy, but I believe everyone can do it!”

“Why are you shouting at me?” Kokichi suddenly shifted gears, soon dropping his hands into fists and exploding into a cacophony of crocodile tears. “I’m just scaaaared! I don’t want to go outside!”

As the two bickered, Kaede felt a tentative hand tap her on the shoulder. She turned around to face Shuichi Saihara, quiet and nervous as always. “Hey, Shuichi. What do you need?”

“Um, I have something to say, so…”

He didn’t need to say anything more. “Hey, everyone! Shuichi has something he needs to say!”

Kokichi immediately turned his attention away from his fight with Kaito. “Oh, what is it?” Kaito looked a little miffed at the sudden shift in attention, but respectfully silenced himself along with everyone else in the room.

“O-oh, um… I believe we should investigate this place. It seems like a somewhat standard house, so we might be able to contact our families with a phone somewhere in here, and if not, we still might be able to find other resources, like food and water.”

“And what if Monokuma finds us in here, huh?” Kokichi, always the fickle one in the group, questioned Shuichi.

“U-uh…”

Kaede defended Shuichi. “Well, if we get into any danger, we can always shout and warn the others. I agree with Shuichi; let’s investigate this place!”

Kaito gave another signature thumbs-up. “Yeah, I agree too! Nice going, Shuichi!”

One by one, all of the other students expressed their approval of Shuichi’s plan. This time, even Rantaro and Tsumugi joined in, though their responses were even less enthusiastic than what Kaede was expecting from them.

At the end of it all, Kokichi had to concede. “Well, I guess if it’s Shuichi’s plan, it can’t hurt to try. Nishishi~”

All the students then looked toward Shuichi, silently asking how they would go about investigating the area around them. He took a second to realize it, then one more to gather his words. “Well… As long as we’re not in immediate danger, I don’t think it would hurt to investigate in groups.”

Kaede came to his support once again. He deserved it. “Alright, let’s form a few groups!”

One would think it would be difficult for these sixteen eclectic personalities to appropriately sort themselves, but they naturally diluted into four complete groups, if a bit unbalanced in terms of size. Kaede stayed with Shuichi, of course. Kaito collected Maki Harukawa, Angie, Himiko, Tenko, Gonta Gokuhara, and Rantaro all in a massive investigation party. Both Miu and Tsumugi hung around Kirumi who, in turn, gravitated toward Korekiyo. The three people left were Ryoma, K1-B0, and Kokichi, and the latter was quite vocal about it.

“Kaitoooo!” Kokichi released his most irritating whine yet. “I said I was scared, but you took all the strong people and left me with the robot! He could turn evil, you know. That’s what robots do.” Kokichi’s tone became surprisingly composed at the end of his rant.

Kiibo, however, quickly lost his composure. “Wh- This is blatant robophobia! I will take you to court with everyone else as a witness!”

Kokichi gave Kiibo a sidelong glance. “Yeah, sure, Kii-boy. But Kaitoooo!” Kaito was pointedly ignoring the whole exchange.

Tsumugi interjected, bringing the discussion back to the investigation. “So, I was plainly wondering where all our groups should search.”

“We’ll take the second floor!” Kaito bravely gestured toward the staircase. “We might be able to find whoever owns this place, and either get help or, if they’re dangerous, protect everyone!”

“Awww, but I wanted to check the second floor.” Kokichi continued to be antagonistic.

“Alright, both of your groups will check the second floor.” Kaede cut off the conflict before it could derail them again, feeling the ache in her joints flare up in annoyance. “And Kirumi?”

Miu answered instead. “We’ll see if there’s a basement. People always stash their secret kinky shit in the basement.”

“Um,” Kaede began.

“I am fine with it.” Korekiyo looked on wistfully. “I have found that humans store some of their most prized possessions in basements, sexual or otherwise.”

“Plainly, I’m fine with it too.” Tsumugi joined in, followed by Kirumi.

“If it’s what the majority wants, I will accept it.”

“Well, alright.” Kaede shifted to capture the attention of the whole group once again. “And I’ll search the ground floor with Shuichi. Alright everyone, let’s investigate this place!”

\---

One of the doorways leading out of the room they woke up in led directly to a kitchen. It was a fairly standard kitchen, nothing distinguishing it from another kitchen in another house like this one. The most significant information it provided laid in the clean dishes filling the sink; Shuichi told Kaede that the dishes were so clean that they had to have been washed in the past few hours, in the past few days at most.

After taking an opportunity to scan the counter before them, Kaede spotted a landline phone. “Yes!” She rushed over and picked it up off of its receiver. Now to call her parents and let them know that she was okay!

Except…

“Hey, Kaede, what’s wrong?” Shuichi must have noticed her pause, so she quickly snapped to face him with the brightest smile she could manage.

“Nothing! Just… I can’t remember my parents’ phone number.”

Shuichi’s face twinged in sympathy. “Ah… Maybe we should just call the police for now…”

“Alright!” Kaede punched in the number for the emergency hotline, but the phone gave no indication that it had recognised the input. Kaede held it out before her face in confusion.

Shuichi spoke up again. “Ah, maybe the power’s out? I don’t remember seeing any lights on in this place…”

“Oh, yeah, that must be it!” Kaede cast a supportive glance toward Shuichi as she replaced the phone on the receiver. “So, what should we do now?”

“I guess we should look for food, since we can’t contact anyone…”

“Alright! I’ll search the cabinets while you search the fridge!” Kaede quickly pointed out the fridge next to Shuichi before turning toward the cabinets behind her, intending to get started with her search before Shuichi called out to her again.

“Hey, Kaede? You might want to see this…”

“Huh? What is it?” Kaede strolled over to where Shuichi stood, a piece of paper in his hands.

“Well, I found this note.” Shuichi angled the note so Kaede could read it.

‘Hey! We’re going out for the week. Food’s in the fridge. We’ll miss you lots! XOXO, Mom and Dad.’

“Well, this note seems sweet, but I bet you have more to say on it.” Kaede looked at Shuichi with a supportive expectancy.

“Well, yeah, I mean, it tells us that a family lives here, and that the parents are out of the house right now, judging by how the note is still here and feels fairly new. And it tells us that there might be one or more people here who still live with their parents, but at least one of them is old enough to take care of themselves for a few days. Of course, someone might have just planted the note…”

“Well, I think it’s amazing that you determined so much from this note!” Kaede didn’t want Shuichi to slip into a bout of self-deprecation, as well as feeling a bit of relief of her own. “So, I guess this place might not be dangerous after all!”

“Yeah, I guess so… But this note brings up another problem.”

“Hm?”

“I don’t want to steal food from people, especially when it seems likely that we can get more help outside.”

“Yeah… Well, why don’t we go look for the person who’s staying here?”

“Huh!?” Shuichi expressed his shock at Kaede’s idea. “Well, I guess we could, but it might seem like we broke into their house…”

“Oh, you’re right.” It was a valid concern, but one they could easily overcome. “But I’m sure that we can explain ourselves and get the help we need. We’ve gotten through so much worse!”

A small, yet warm smile sprouted on Shuichi’s face, a smile of faith and hard-won confidence he must have gained after the tunnel. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go see if we can find who’s staying here.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

\---

Rantaro Amami was utterly confused. In the Academy for Gifted Juveniles, he awoke with two tablets in his hands. One of them was a “Monopad,” something he discovered that every other student in the academy had. The other was a personalized “Survivor Perk,” and he was presumably the only person who knew about it. It was a note— perhaps from him, if something had removed his memories of writing it, or perhaps from someone who knew him very well— detailing how to catch the “ringleader” and end the killing game. He had been mentally preparing to face the ringleader in the library once Monokuma needed a spare.

But now he was here, in a new location which the map in his Survivor Perk didn’t reference at all.

Not only that, but Monokuma hadn’t shown up at any point since he arrived in this place. Someone less knowledgeable might think that the students had escaped the killing game, but the Survivor Perk heavily implied that the only way to escape the killing game was to defeat the ringleader among the students in the academy. All sixteen SHSL students— including the ringleader— had awoken in this place.

And Rantaro soon realized that not only his Survivor Perk, but his Monopad too, were gone. In fact, he hadn’t seen anyone take out their Monopads, so they might have lost theirs without noticing it.

All of it unsettled Rantaro more than the killing game already had. He didn’t know what the ringleader was planning, but he needed to stop them, whoever they were.

Perhaps he would notice some odd behavior if he hung around the largest search party.

“Alright everybody, let’s search this room!” At the head of the group, Kaito loudly directed everyone toward the door he was opening. He seemed innocent enough, but it might all be a ruse.

A mix of reactions spread through the rest of the group. Angie and Gonta confidently and enthusiastically followed after Kaito. Tenko muttered something about degenerate male behavior before following suit. Himiko and Maki said nothing, the former simply slugging along, the latter keeping herself upright and reserved.

Any one of them could be the ringleader. Hopefully, Rantaro would catch one of them slipping up.

But for now, the only thing he could do was assemble with the rest of the group behind Kaito, waiting for him to open the door.

Once the door opened, the whole group paused for a few long moments, shocked and confused at what laid within the room.

No one was inside.

Instead, illustrated posters covered all four walls from floor to ceiling. They had varying levels of detail and quality, but they all shared the same subject. They all depicted the same person.

They were all posters of Tsumugi Shirogane.

Could she be the ringleader?

Rantaro quickly reviewed every interaction he had with Tsumugi in his head. It was surprisingly difficult. Tsumugi made much less of an impact in Rantaro’s mind than some of the more assertive students, like Kaede or Kokichi. But Rantaro did remember how soft-spoken she was, except when going on odd and unnecessary tangents, and how she often admonished herself for her “plainness.” Now that he thought about it, Tsumugi did quite a lot to take the attention off of herself as a personality, repeating over and over again that she was plain and unnoteworthy. Perhaps it was all intentional, a ruse as she controlled the killing game from behind the scenes.

But Rantaro had no way to be sure, especially not right now, when they weren’t in the same room.

As Rantaro considered the likelihood of Tsumugi being the ringleader, the other students reacted to the posters with a much more shallow shock.

“What the hell!?” Case in point, Kaito stepped back into an instinctual defensive position.

“Nyeh!? Why are there so many posters of Tsumugi?” Himiko kept a tight grip upon her hat, likely to keep herself from losing it in shock.

“Huh?” Gonta, in comparison, seemed less shocked and more confused by this development. “Gonta think it not so strange. Gonta know that Tsumugi is the SHSL Cosplayer, so Gonta think she must be known for it.”

Gonta’s speculation… actually might be true. This room might just store promotional posters for Tsumugi’s cosplaying, and she might not have anything to do with the ringleader.

“Hm.” Maki, not usually one to speak up, took a step forward, into the room. “That might be true, but it doesn’t explain why all of these posters depict her in her normal outfit, rather than in cosplay.”

Also a valid point. Rantaro’s mind swum in the possibilities revealed by this room.

After a moment’s pause, Rantaro forced his mind to settle enough to realize that no one else was providing any input into the situation. They were all staring at the posters in intense confusion. Well, Rantaro didn’t mind taking charge for a second. “Hey, maybe we should look around for resources. I don’t think we’re going to get any clear answers about these posters.”

Kaito swiftly snapped to attention. “Alright, let’s get searching, everyone!” Kaito then strolled into the room, and everyone else followed, still dazed by the posters, but present enough to spread out into different parts of the room. Now, with the focus removed from the posters, Rantaro realized that the room was a small, personal bedroom, and he chose to look inside a dresser positioned next to the bed. Upon opening it, Rantaro saw a bunch of assorted shirts with a few mechanical tools, like a wrench and a screwdriver, shoved between them.

However, before Rantaro could analyze the contents of the top drawer further, Kaito called out to the rest of the group from the closet. “Hey, guys, I found a phone!”

The party quickly assembled in the center of the room, Kaito at their head. He held a fairly modern cellphone, maybe a few years old. Once Kaito pressed the home button, the screen lit up, revealing yet another illustration of Tsumugi. The sudden reminder of the uncertain aspect of the room they were in caused the group to freeze.

“Hey!” Tenko’s outcry snapped the rest of the group back to attention. “That phone might belong to a woman, so don’t try anything, you degenerate male!”

“Wh- I won’t!” Kaito scrambled to his own defense. “I’m just going to make an emergency call!”

“I’m watching you.” Tenko leered at Kaito.

Sweating under Tenko’s piercing gaze, Kaito slid the home screen of the phone in the way that it indicated to reach the emergency call screen. Luckily, this screen only consisted of a white background and the digits one could input. Kaito assertively punched in the number for the emergency hotline and drew the phone to his ear. The others waited around him, so close to returning to their normal lives.

The faint sounds of ringing stopped, and a voice, indecipherable by anyone other than Kaito, began speaking. After a moment, Kaito responded. “Hello. I’m with fifteen other teenagers, and we were kidnapped, but we fought our way to escape our kidnappers! However, we need help to return to our families, so if you could help in any way…”

The voice on the phone began again, and Kaito responded in turn. “My name is Kaito Momota, and as for where we are… Hey! Why are you… What!?” A monotone buzz now sounded from the phone. “Damn it!” Kaito violently motioned his frustration with his arms.

“What happened?” Gonta extended his arms in an attempt to calm Kaito.

“Did they hang up on you because of your degeneracy?” Tenko was notably less of a calming force. “Maybe one of the girls should try.”

Kaito took a few deep breaths before attempting an explanation. “No, they just… started laughing at me! And hung up on me! Why would they do that? It’s their job to help us!”

“Well, we might not be able to trust the police.” Maki spoke up again. “Something related to the killing game could be influencing them.” Now that Rantaro thought about it, Maki had been acting quite suspicious since Rantaro had first met her. Perhaps it was a result of her being the ringleader. Could she have influenced the police? Were they even outside of the killing game at all?

Or maybe Maki was suspicious of everyone, just like Rantaro was. He was so… frustrated, for being around this group wasn’t bringing any answers. No one was slipping up any more than they usually did. In the academy, Rantaro had a solid plan for stopping the ringleader. Now, he was just as powerless as the rest of the students.

So, as the rest of the group worried about the fact that the killing game could still hold an influence over them, Rantaro worried about what the ringleader was plotting for all of them, and who they could possibly be.

\---

Tsumugi Shirogane was in a state of utter panic. Something had gone deeply wrong with this season of Danganronpa. There should have never been any escape from the killing game into the real world. Hell, the students were never supposed to get through the Death Road of Despair! It was set to the hardest difficulty!

Now, Tsumugi was in a completely unknown location with no way to escape the notice of the others if she slipped away, no way to contact anyone else in Team Danganronpa, and no way to find Monokuma and regain even a modicum of control of the situation! What the hell even happened!? How did they even get here!?

Of course, a major part of her training with Team Danganronpa prepared Tsumugi to deal with utter panic if absolutely everything went wrong. She was able to save face and act as she had been acting in the killing game, and she was sure that no one would suspect her, especially not her present company.

After splitting up with Kaede and Shuichi, Miu assigned the other three “virgins” to search for any potential doorway to the basement. Kirumi was the one who ultimately found it— Of course, Tsumugi had designed her to be quite intelligent, and she would have made an outstanding second blackened in the killing game. But now was not the time to dwell on the killing game. Now was the time to follow the other three down into the basement without drawing attention to herself.

The basement itself presented the next challenge: It was pitch black. No windows opened into the room, and there was absolutely no other useful source of light anywhere. The light streaming down from the ground floor only illuminated the stairs where the four paused.

“Hey, can one of you virgins find a fuckin’ lightswitch or something?” Miu continued to be commanding and controlling of the group.

“And why is it that you cannot find this lightswitch?” Korekiyo began to lean over Miu. He was growing a bit more hostile to Miu than Tsumugi anticipated. “You are at the head of the group.”

“W-well I… Hiiii-” Miu seemed to want to lean back from Korekiyo’s imposition, but after glancing back and seeing the wall of darkness behind her, she decided instead to fold in on herself, crumpling under Korekiyo’s gaze. At least she was acting in line.

In the meantime, Kirumi had been running her hands along the walls near the foot of the stairs, following Miu’s request. After a few seconds, her motions came to gradual stop, and she calmly moved whatever she was holding— most likely a lightswitch— upward.

Nothing happened. The room stayed as dark as it ever was.

Kirumi straightened herself to address Miu. “I apologize, but the power seems to be out, so I cannot fulfill your request of turning on the lights.”

Korekiyo turned to face Kirumi, allowing Miu to straighten up and address her as well. “Well, there’s gotta be some fuckin’ way to get the power back on down here, like a fuse box or somethin’…” Miu then seemed to realize that the wall of darkness was still imposing itself over her, and her eyes widened in turn. “U-uh, you three! Go into the basement and see if you can find a fuse box in there!”

Korekiyo’s eyes flashed in a lightning jolt of annoyance, but he kept silent this time. Instead, both he and Kirumi began to cautiously step into the darkness, and, in a continuing effort to keep suspicion off of her, Tsumugi followed.

Immediately, it became obvious that many objects were scattered around the basement, just like in the room in which the students woke up. A cacophony of rustling reverberated through the basement, only some of it accounted for by the things Tsumugi felt beneath her own feet. Looking back, Tsumugi could barely see Miu’s outline, but she knew Miu was standing expectantly, waiting for the others to do her bidding. That fear would have made her a perfect victim.

Come on, Tsumugi told herself. Now is not the time to get hung up on what was supposed to happen. Now, you need to improvise.

Instinctually, Tsumugi reached a hand out in front of her once she got a certain distance away from the stairs. It felt like she had walked far enough to reach a wall. And she did reach one, placing her hand flat against the plaster. As she reached it, Tsumugi decided to turn right and feel along the wall for a fuse box. Again, it felt right.

Tsumugi moved to call out that she had reached a wall, but a crash and a clipped cry interrupted her. She decided to just start moving along the wall as Korekiyo recovered and began to speak. “Well, I believe it might be impossible to navigate through this room in the dark.” Twinges of pain laced around his words.

Kirumi’s voice rang through the basement after Korekiyo’s. “I feel that this might be an impossible task as well. I apologize, Miu.”

“W-well, that’s alright.” Tsumugi could feel the tension inside Miu with her voice. “But, hey, Shittygane, are you making any progress?”

Crap! The focus was on her! Tsumugi had to say something to show that she was just a normal student. After a moment of thought, the truth seemed like the best option. “Well, I plainly didn’t want to interrupt anyone else, being so plain, but I’ve plainly found a wall, and— Oh!” Tsumugi’s hand stopped against a metal object mounted upon the wall. “I think I plainly found a fuse box, or something similar.”

“Do you think you’re gonna get railed after saying ‘plain’ a hundred times?” Miu was as courteous as ever.

“Silence.” While the pain was still present in his voice, Korekiyo mustered up enough energy to counter Miu, but he soon followed his statement with one of a softer tone. “I apologize, I do not mean to impede the beauty of humanity, but I have been feeling an irritating pain in my back since we woke up in this place.”

No one was sure how to respond to that information.

In the meantime, Tsumugi carefully felt for a latch on the cover of the fuse box, clinched it between her fingers, and swung the cover open. “Alright, I opened it!” Tsumugi paused for a second. She had a feeling, but… “Hey, Miu, I plainly don’t know which switch to use, would you know?”

“What? I do have my golden brain… but this isn’t about fuckin’ intelligence! I don’t know how that shit’s designed! Just flip a switch and see what fuckin’ happens!”

Tsumugi sarcastically thanked Miu in her mind before turning her thoughts back to the fuse box. Since Miu didn’t know which switch would reset the power, Tsumugi had no better option than to follow the weird feeling of “rightness” that guided her through the basement thus far.

Actually, now that Tsumugi focused on it, she had sensed that feeling ever since waking up in this new location, didn’t she? It was in the background of her mind when she first woke up, but once the contestants split up into groups, it was slowly becoming more and more prominent. And the feeling didn’t feel exactly like “rightness—” It felt more like… comfort. Tsumugi wasn’t comfortable with all the contestants being removed from Danganronpa, but aside from that… Tsumugi felt comfortable in this place.

Tsumugi decided to trust the feeling for the time being and flipped the switch which felt most comfortable.

The lights on the ceiling of the basement flickered to life.

They revealed a floor which was substantially messier than the floor upstairs. Assorted pieces of packing material and metal lined the visible areas of the floor, but most of the floor was covered in a maze of boxes of all shapes and sizes. A wave of nuts and bolts spilled out of a smaller box lying on its side behind Korekiyo, who also laid prone— Presumably, he tripped over that box. Further away, Kirumi stood in a dead end lined by three large boxes.

Tsumugi’s feeling must have been quite powerful. It allowed her to navigate this mess.

“Alright!” Miu shouted from the stairs. “My golden brain has saved us once again!”

Kirumi and Korekiyo ignored her, instead opting to begin searching through the boxes near them. (In Korekiyo’s case, he pushed himself up as gracefully as he could manage beforehand.) Right, Shuichi instructed them to search for resources. Of all the characters, Tsumugi was the least sure of what to do with Shuichi in the endgame. In the killing game, she would have said that it would come to her, but now she wasn’t sure what was happening with the killing game.

Well, more importantly, Tsumugi had to maintain her image as an unsuspicious SHSL student, so she stopped her train of thought and joined the search for resources with Miu.

\---

Ryoma determined that the headache he had woken up with was now matching the tone and frequency of Kokichi’s incessant harassment of Kiibo.

“But Kii-boy, we gotta check!” Kokichi was currently leaning forward, trying to thrust his hands into Kiibo. The situation hadn’t devolved into chasing yet, but judging by Kiibo’s tentative steps backward, it was about to.

“No! I assure you, I was not replaced at any point!” Kiibo threw up his hands between himself and Kokichi.

“That’s just what an evil clone of Kii-boy would say!” Kokichi seemed way too enthusiastic to honestly be concerned about Kiibo being evil. He still had a ways to go before he could properly deal with situations like this one.

As if on cue, Kokichi’s demeanor shifted. He leaned back from Kiibo and put a finger up, as if he were teaching Kiibo something. “Besides, if your consciousness was transplanted into an evil robot body, you wouldn’t know that you were an evil clone.”

“That’s impossible!” Kiibo still had a ways to go too, a ways to go before he could stop showing all his emotions to everyone in the room.

“Impossible for humans—” Kokichi’s face broke out into a smirk— “but not for evil robots.”

“For the last time, I am not an evil clone!”

Honestly, Ryoma had felt sparks of hope surge through him once he realized that the SHSL students had successfully escaped the killing game, but they were soon downtrodden by his headaches— both his literal one and the one named Kokichi— as well as other factors. He had nothing waiting for him in the outside world, nothing except the continuation of a lifetime jail sentence, however short it might end up being. Everyone he ever cared about was dead, and the last people who would positively interact with him were the same people surrounding him now, people he had known for less than a day.

What would have happened if he stayed behind?

Anyways, Ryoma still had a ways to go if his mind kept running him in circles like those. The only thing he could do right now was follow Shuichi’s plan and search for resources. Glancing around the hallway he stood in, Ryoma soon selected the door of a room to search.

As he reached the door, Ryoma called back to Kokichi and Kiibo, not willing to abandon his group just yet. “Hey, let’s check out this room.”

“Oooo!” Kokichi rushed across the hall, almost trampling Ryoma as he pushed his way into the room. “Let’s see what we have here… A computer!”

“A computer?” Kiibo had the decency to help Ryoma regain his balance before leading them both into the room.

The room was pretty compact, although the wires trailing everywhere might have made it seem smaller than it actually was. All over the walls and floor, with no clear beginning and end… The wires worsened Ryoma’s headache. Other than the wires, the room contained one table with the aforementioned computer resting upon it and Kokichi in front of it.

Kokichi turned around to face the other two. “Yes, a computer!” He put his fists up in such a manner that couldn’t mean good things for Ryoma’s head. “Come on, Kii-boy, talk to it!”

“W-what!?” With Kiibo’s response, the cycle began anew.

“Well, you’re a robot. Just use your robot powers to hack into the computer and force it to give us all its information!”

“I-I can’t do that!” Kiibo’s voice hit a particularly painful note of desperation. “I don’t know more about computers or hacking than the average person!”

“Aw, and just when I thought you could do some cool robot stuff.” Even without looking at Kokichi, Ryoma could hear his pout. “Wow, you really must be useless, huh, Kii-boy?”

Kiibo devolved into an unintelligible array of sounds of indignation.

While Kokichi was aggravating his headache further, Ryoma walked over to the computer and discovered three things. First, the monitor was actually a laptop on top of an unrelated computer, and from a first glance, the laptop didn’t seem like it was plugged into any external power source. Second, most— if not all— of the wires seemed to be connected to this single laptop. Third, the laptop was still on.

Ryoma ran his finger along the mousepad, expecting the laptop to be protected by some kind of password. Surprisingly, it unlocked automatically.

The screen displayed many lines of white code against a black screen. It was a little overwhelming for Ryoma to look at, especially with his headache, but he started by focusing on the last line of code, the last result of the program.

‘Downloaded V3 IF.’

It wasn’t anything Ryoma understood, at least not at the moment. Well, hopefully, it could distract his two teammates from their arguments. “Hey, I think I found something.”

“Oh, what is it?” Never one to do anything in moderation, Kokichi rushed over to where Ryoma stood to peek over his shoulder at the computer screen. After finally standing still for a few seconds, Kokichi called back to Kiibo. “Hey, you can make sense of this, right, Kii-boy? Being a robot and all.”

“I just told you, I don’t know that much about coding!” No matter how many times Kokichi went to get a rise out of him, Kiibo maintained the same amount of indignation every time.

Ryoma’s headache flared, and he put a hand up in an instinctual preparation to clutch it.

Kokichi continued to grate against Ryoma’s headache. “Oh yeah, I forgot how useless you were.”

Kiibo seized up, apparently preparing another attempt at a retort, but he kept quiet for a moment, relaxed his body, and began speaking with his typical tone. “Anyway, I found a door leading to a closet, and I believe we should check it out!”

“So open it, Kii-boy!” Ryoma internally grumbled.

Kiibo seized up again, relaxed again, and opened the door without a word. It led into a place which looked like a closet, if closets didn’t have clothes in them but instead a singular stool and an array of images hung on each wall.

Kokichi skipped over to the “closet,” and after taking a moment to process that fact, Ryoma paced after him to get a better look at the images. Once he got close enough, Ryoma finally realized that the images were actually… schematics. They showed various mechanical parts from different angles, and the miniscule writing over and between the images presumably described the aesthetic and function of each individual part.

However, Ryoma didn’t conclude what the schematics depicted until he saw Kiibo’s head in one of the images.

“So you were replaced with an evil clone!” Kokichi’s eyes shone in way too much delight. Yep, he definitely still had a ways to go before properly addressing potential danger.

“What!? N-no, I assure you, all my functions are in order! Everything’s working the same!” Wow, Kiibo really didn’t know how to defend himself at all.

Welp, Ryoma determined, they still had a ways to go before determining the true meaning of these schematics. He had the feeling that they wouldn’t receive any clear answers until they brought up the subject to the other SHSL students. In the meantime, Ryoma would keep an eye on Kiibo as they continued their search for resources.

Now, to get the rest of his group to refocus on that task.

\---

Kaede returned to the room in which the sixteen SHSL students awoke, intending to climb the stairs and search for the person staying in the house. Shuichi had directed her to go upstairs in her search, saying that he had the ground floor covered. Also, even if the person wasn’t upstairs, she could run into the other groups and let them know about the situation detailed in the note Shuichi found. Everything was working out perfectly, and soon all the SHSL students would return to their normal lives, leaving the killing game behind them once and for all!

If only the ache in her joints would fade.

If only she actually made it up the stairs.

Before she even turned in their direction, the doorbell rang. The sound of the doorbell strangely echoed through the room— perhaps the result of the chandelier— letting a hollow, reverberating tone set into the area. Kaede felt ominous shivers prickle up her spine, but she kept her head high. It must be either the person who was staying here, or their parents, giving her just as much opportunity to explain the situation either way.

After that moment’s deliberation, Kaede made her way through the mess on the ground, reaching the door across the room as she prepared the beginning of her explanation.

Upon seeing who was on the other side of the door, the explanation died in Kaede’s throat, but it only stopped her for a second. She quickly revised her greeting.

“Hey Shuichi! Any luck on finding that person?” Kaede thought for a second. “Wait, how did you three get outside?”

Before her stood Himiko Yumeno, Maki Harukawa, and— front and center— Shuichi Saihara. They all looked slightly worse for wear— It must have been something in their stance— but otherwise, they seemed exactly like how Kaede had seen them last. At first glance, anyway. There was something off…

Kaede looked to Shuichi, expecting his typical soft-spoken answer to set things right, but he didn’t give it. Instead, he almost… shrank back from Kaede, his pupils narrowing and his mouth slightly gaping. Had something gone wrong? Was he in shock? Kaede wanted to comfort him, but Himiko spoke before her.

“Nyeh, relax, Shuichi. It’s just someone who looks like Kaede.”

Huh? Kaede immediately thought that this was some kind of prank, but pranks were more Oma’s thing. Well, nothing would get cleared up if Kaede didn’t say anything. “No, I am Kaede… Huh? What are you guys doing?”

In a jolt, Himiko adopted a more violent version of Shuichi’s shock. “Nyeh! B-but… you can’t be Kaede!”

What was going on? Were they playing a game, or had something else occurred? Kaede racked her brain for any solutions which made sense, but she couldn’t come up with any.

In her confusion, Kaede only barely noticed when Maki pushed her way into the room, her eyes trained on something on the ground.

Eyes…

Shuichi’s eyes, they were the thing that bothered her! In the doorway right now, his eyes seemed like a sort of grey or gold in the daylight, but when they had talked in the kitchen a few moments ago, Kaede was sure that his eyes were an emerald green.

But people’s eyes don’t suddenly change color. Was it just a trick of the light?

Kaede didn’t have any more time to mull over Shuichi’s eyes because Maki called out. “Hey guys, come take a look at this.”

Kaede moved in Maki’s direction, allowing Shuichi and Himiko to follow her inside. However, upon seeing the object in Maki’s hands, Himiko cried out. “Nyeh! Is that a flashback light!?”

What was a “flashback light?” The thing that Maki held seemed similar to a flashlight, even though it had more complex machinery attached to it, but why would Himiko call it that? Kaede’s mind buzzed with an ever growing amount of unanswered questions, and the ache in her joints seemed to be worsening, and she wished that everything would just slow down.

Unfortunately, the world did not hear her mental plea. Maki showed the “flashback light” to the rest of the group— as much as they were a group. Kaede felt a major divide between herself and the three others in the room, one that hadn’t been present a few moments prior.

In any case, Maki pointed out a paper label on the “flashback light:”

“Identity File (IF): Kaede Akamatsu.”

Kaede didn’t grasp the significance of the label, but the atmosphere in the room shifted as if everyone else had. To demonstrate the point, Shuichi spoke for the first time. “What about all the other flashback lights?”

Maki collected a few more similar objects from the ground, and they each had a similar label: “Identity File (IF):” and the name of one of the SHSL students. The only object which was substantially different was a flash drive labelled “Identity File (IF): K1-B0.”

The pain in Kaede’s joints flared, and she desperately questioned the others. “Hey guys, what are you all talking about? Why are we looking at these objects? I don’t understand this at all.”

Himiko ignored her. “So when that person directed us here, saying that we must be looking for this place…”

Maki, in turn, continued to ignore Kaede. “Yeah… Shuichi, do you think these other flashback lights have been used?”

“Hm…” For a torturous moment, Kaede thought that Shuichi was going to ignore her too. But his bond with Kaede must have won out in the end. It was the only thing that made sense now, as he turned toward her. “K-Kaede, did you wake up here with anyone?”

What? How could he not remember waking up here with everyone? Did he have amnesia? What was even happening? In the midst of the questions swirling in her head, Kaede somehow managed to answer Shuichi’s. She trusted him, after all. “Y-yeah… I woke up here with all of you. Everyone. We all escaped the killing game, together.”

Shuichi, Himiko, and Maki looked at each other in a tense silence, like a piano note held for too long to be comfortable, only breaking the silence when Himiko spoke again. “They used all the flashback lights…?”

Shuichi turned his gaze directly to Himiko, a new, profound shakiness accompanying his tone. “They must have… To willingly erase your own personality for that stupid show… Just like us…”

The silence began anew.

Kaede was more confused and frustrated than ever.

“Shuichi, what’s going on? Just tell me what’s going on!? What are you—”

“Kaede.”

Shuichi’s tone gained a sudden strength, a strength it never had in the killing game, a strength it never had in this house, not until now. It was such a dramatic shift that Kaede felt she might as well be talking to a completely different person, and it scared her. It scared her in such an unrecognisable way.

But it was the closest she had come to being directly addressed since the beginning of this ordeal.

“Y-yes, Shuichi?”

Shuichi’s gaze, too, gained a quality that Kaede never saw in it before. “Kaede, I’m sorry.”

“… For what?”

“I’m sorry for the person you were before.”


End file.
